FY 2015 Appropriations Update

Both the House and Senate are in session this week. The Senate could consider energy efficiency and tax extenders legislation, while the House considers charter schools legislation and contempt charges against former IRS official Lois Lerner.

Senate appropriators will learn about their committee allocations for their FY 2015 spending bills. This will allow them to begin drafting each of the 12 annual measures. The allocations, known as 302(b)s, won’t be official until approved by the full panel, which generally happens as the first appropriations markup for the year now set for May 22nd. Committee members will then have less than 90 days to mark up and debate as many of the 12 annual spending bills as possible before the August recess.

Meanwhile, House appropriators are about a month ahead of the Senate and are ready to move two more domestic funding measures: Transportation-HUD and Commerce-Justice-Science. House appropriators are due to back their allocations this week and have already moved their first two spending bills, Military Construction-VA and Legislative Branch, with temporary allocations.